A+E Interactive » Hayley Williamshttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei
Bay Area Arts and Entertainment BlogFri, 13 Feb 2015 21:27:43 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1Review: Paramore at HP Pavilionhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2010/09/18/review-paramore-at-hp-pavilion/
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2010/09/18/review-paramore-at-hp-pavilion/#commentsSat, 18 Sep 2010 10:11:57 +0000Jim Harringtonhttp://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2010/09/18/review-paramore-at-hp-pavilion/By Jim Harrinton Hayley Williams can’t keep still. And it drives the young Paramore vocalist crazy if you can. “You’ve had enough of your seat – stupid, stupid seat,” she said to the few that weren’t up and dancing during… Continue Reading →]]>By Jim Harrinton
Hayley Williams can’t keep still. And it drives the young Paramore vocalist crazy if you can.
“You’ve had enough of your seat – stupid, stupid seat,” she said to the few that weren’t up and dancing during her band’s concert Friday night at HP Pavilion in San Jose. “So, if you’re sitting – stop that.”
The 21-year-old Mississippi native, who helped form Paramore in 2004 in the Nashville area, is certainly an energetic, exuberant presence onstage. She’s also a talkative, engaging and magnetic front woman, blessed with a fairly versatile singing voice.
Williams, to put it bluntly, is the only thing that makes Paramore interesting. It’s definitely not the music – a mix of emo-rock and Radio Disney-friendly pop that is served cold on milquetoast. The group, quite frankly, is lucky to have her.
How long she’ll remain in the fold, however, is another matter. Some are shocked that she hasn’t already left the band to pursue a solo career. And it’s easy to understand why they feel that way after watching the San Jose show.
It was nice to see how much Williams has matured as a performer in just over a year. She was a vastly more dynamic figure this time around than when her band opened for No Doubt at Sleep Train Pavilion in Concord in July 2009.
On the flipside, Paramore’s music has shown little or no artistic growth during the same time frame, despite the release of its third album, “Brand New Eyes.” That may be a brilliant marketing plan, since the group is still able to entice millions of teenage listeners, but it’s also a bit depressing. There was absolutely no evidence provided at HP to make one believe Paramore will ever be able to attract a more seasoned crowd.
Thus far that has yet to hurt the band. The pavilion was filled with thousands of young, mostly female, fans that seemed to know every one of Paramore’s selections by heart. They screamed when Williams poured out her heart into the microphone, clearly identifying with the confusion and angst that fill the lyrics.
Opening its approximately 100-minute show with “Ignorance,” the first of four singles (thus far) off of “Brand New Eyes,” the group did its best to keep the show lively. Perhaps they did too good a job in that regard. The arena floor was general admission, standing-room only, and the security guys in yellow coats had to spend much of the night pulling young girls out from the crush of humanity at the front of the stage.
The sextet – which also features guitarists Josh Farro, Taylor York and Jon Howard (for touring purposes only), bassist Jeremy Davis and drummer Zac Farro – handled a lot of musical terrain. Yet, wherever it went – from nu-metal to ska-pop to alt-rock – the result was usually the same: a watered-down, unimaginative take on stuff that so many others have done far better.
There were some exceptions, such as an unexpected turn to the Loretta Lynn songbook for a cover of "You Ain't Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” – which, oddly enough, the fans just barely tolerated – and a peppy acoustic version of “When It Rains” (from 2007’s platinum-selling “Riot!).
All told, however, there weren’t enough of those moments to make one believe that Hayley Williams’ future lies within Paramore.]]>http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2010/09/18/review-paramore-at-hp-pavilion/feed/6